Sir Robert W. Perks. Bart THE STORY OF His LIFE DENIS CRANE CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library TA 140.P45C89 The life-story of Sir Robert W. Perks.ba 3 1924 021 903 855 M ^ Cornell University WM Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021903855 THE LIFE-STORY or SIR ROBERT W. PERKS BARONET BY THE SAME AUTHDR JOHN CLIFFORD : God's Soldier and the People's Tribune With Portraits. 2a. 6d. net. JAMES FLANAGAN The Story of a Remarkable Career. With eight illus- trations. 2s. ea. net. - MR ROBERT W. PIf.RKS, liART., INI. I'. {From the Painting by iih . Arthur T, Naivcli.) [Fi'ontispic THE LIFE-STORY OP SIR ROBERT W. PERKS BARONET or DENIS CRANE WITH SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS CHARLES H. KELLY SS-35 CITY ROAD, AND 26 PATERNOSTER ROW, B.C. l-RINTED BT HAZBLL WATSON AND VINBT, Ll»., LONDON AND AYLBSBUXY PREFATORY NOTE This book could hardly have been written but for the generous assistance of many of Sir Robert Perks's friends, who, upon learning what was afoot, gladly opened their treasure-houses and brought forth things new and old. The author would have been proud to name those who have thus lightened his nevertheless arduous task, but that their number forbids it ; and where all have been equally obliging it would have been invidious to mention some and omit others. He therefore trusts that friends who have laid him under so great an obligation will be content with this assurance of his gratitude, and with their copy of a book which their own kindness has in no small degree helped to produce. D. G. September 1909. CONTENTS OHAP. I. PARENTAGE . II. SCHOOLDAYS . III. A CHAPTER OF BEGINNINGS IV. MEN AND MATTERS V. METHODIST LAYMAN VI. AT CONFERENCE VII. THE MILLION FUND AND METHODIST BROTHERHOOD THE VIII. MEMBER FOR LOUTH IX. MEMBER FOR NONCONFORMITY X. CHARACTERISTICS . II 30 51 71 96 140 168 192 221 THE LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS CHAPTER I PARENTAGE Whatever may be the inevitable defects of a biography written during the hfetime of its subject — and of the reahty of those defects the author of this volume is fully conscious — such a work may possess certain intrinsic merits, which excuse, if they do not justify, its existence. Only two of these need here be mentioned. One is that, by indicating the good qualities and achievements of its hero, it may encourage their emulation ; all the more so because — as against the old sneer that the good men all lived in the past — these qualities and achieve- ments are daily verifiable. The other is that, if the story be written with discrimination, it may win for its subject 12 LIFE-STORY OP SIR R. W. PERKS a measure of that honour which is only too frequently withheld until a man is dead and cannot enjoy it. This may be so even where one dissents from the hero's religious or political views, if it be admitted that what gives real distinction to a career is the moral courage it exhibits and the loftiness of its controlling purposes, rather than its approxi- mation to any one particular interpretation of life. In writing the present monograph, the author has endeavoured to invest his work with these two merits. Anything like a critical account of Sir Robert Perks's career, even if it were called for, would at present be impossible. This, however, may be claimed ; from the first he has shone as a conspicuous example of a courageous Christian la5mian fighting side by side with the ministers of his day in many honourable causes ; he has carried the fight, with singular determination and consistency, into the legislative councils of his country ; he has been closely associated with industrial and commercial enterprises so gigantic and generally so successful that his experience must afford invaluable lessons to those who are as yet but on the threshold of PARENTAGE 13 life ; and, what is more rare, amid all the cares arising out of these great enterprises, and throughout his steady rise in the social scale, he has retained his loyalty not only to the Church of his youth, but also to those of her doctrines and those more democratic features of her constitution which in the prosperous are so often a cause of stumbling or offence. It is natural, therefore, that his friends should wish to acquaint themselves more fully with the details of his career. It was on April 24, 1849, in a Wesleyan minister's house at Hammersmith, that Robert William Perks was born ; but we must go a good deal farther back than that rightly to imderstand him. Indeed, the inclusion in our retrospect of a hundred additional years will hardly suffice ; for he is more closely and honourably bound to his antecedents than are most men. For this reason the somewhat threadbare phrase, ' A son of the manse,' is in his case quite inadequate. The personal forces of his ancestry, rather than the incidental atmosphere of a Methodist preacher's home, were the dominant influences in the forma- tion of his character. His father, George Thomas Perks, came 14 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS from Madeley, in Shropshire, where the family had been resident for several generations. Madeley, as every student of the rehgious life of this country knows, was the parish of John Fletcher, whose name is inseparably associated with the town. The population in Fletcher's time was under five thousand, and can hardly have been much more in 1819, when George was bom. Mrs. Fletcher, whose ' saintliness ' equalled that of her husband, had died only four years before, and among those who visited her on her deathbed was George's mother. It is recorded, indeed, that the dying woman prayed that upon her ' the choicest blessings might descend.' The Perks's house stood opposite the parish church. It was a substantial, double-fronted edifice, with high dormer windows, and, on account of its early associations with the Fletchers, could perhaps lay claim to a certain degree of sanctity. Under its hospitable roof the godly vicar must often have tarried to discuss parish affairs, for George's grandfather (by whom he was brought up, his father having died in early middle life) was one of the church- wardens. Moreover, for some considerable time one of the rooms was utilized for the PARENTAGE 15 Methodist society class, of which, after Fletcher's death, George's grandfather, who lived to a patriarchal age, assumed the leader- ship. He was a friend of John Wesley, whom he met at the Madeley vicarage. The connexion between the house and the vicarage seems to have been a friendly one even in later days, for through the persuasions of Mr. Eyton, a subsequent vicar, George was in his youth destined for the ministry of the Established Church. God willed otherwise, however, and soon after the lad's conversion he experienced a call to exercise his undoubted gifts among the Methodists. From that day until his death his career was honourable and distinguished. He attained to the highest positions his Church had to bestow. In 1872 he filled the office of Secretary of the Confer- ence, and in the following year was elected President. His competitors on the latter occasion were all men greatly beloved, and their names still rank high in Methodist annals — Alexander M'Aulay, Morley Punshon, Gervase Smith — yet so popular was his can- didature, that of the three hundred and sixty- six votes cast, no less than three hundred and twenty were in his favour. He had already, i6 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS as far back as 1867, been appointed Secretary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, and to the onerous duties of that position he devoted the best years of his life. His work involved a visit to Africa, during which, it is alleged, he seriously overtaxed his strength by long journeys and arduous labours. A year or two later he passed away while advocating the cause in which he had already shown such self-effacement. The more intimate friends of Sir Robert assert that, though there are certain points of difference between the two men, he has inherited in an unusual degree some of the best qualities of his father. Certainly any one comparing the portraits of father and son would observe a striking outward likeness ; there is the same steadfast gaze, the same broad, clear-cut, resolute mouth, and the same ample brow ; and the resemblance extends also to the compact frame, firm step, and powerful voice. But the intellectual and moral likeness is not less complete. What Dr. Punshon, in Wesley and His Successors, claims for the father may, with few reservations, be claimed for the son. ' He had superior natural endowments, which were developed and ma- PARENTAGE 17 tured by conscientious study ; ' in early life ' his character had a singular ripeness which forbade men to despise his youth,' while in later years it proved to be unusually ' well- balanced,' and ' displayed in harmonious combination quahties not often found together.' And the same may be said in respect to the ' weight, promptitude, power and independ- ence ' attributed to the father, ' in no common measure,' at the time of his election to the Presidency. In one notable point, however, the likeness breaks down. At a congratulatory dinner in the precincts of the House of Commons a short time ago. Sir Robert, in alluding to his father, described him as ' a confirmed but reticent politician.' Equally ' confirmed,' but necessarily far less ' reticent,' the son has pursued a militant path ; whereas, in politics, at least, the father's course was one of tranquillity and peace. In his first address from the President's chair the latter said : ' As Methodist preachers we cannot afford to be politicians. Our people are divided, and we cannot please one party without offending the other. Besides, three years is much too contracted a period to allow of any abstraction 1 8 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS of time or energy from our great and glorious spiritual work, which is to save souls.' Heartily in accord with these sentiments, with reference to the ministry, as Sir Robert is, it is his own exemption from such restraints, as a layman and a professional politician, which accounts for the major differences between his father and himself. Beneath the somewhat brusque and lawyer-hke exterior, and behind the strong and often mordant speech, there is, as it is hoped this story will show, more of the dehcate sensibility and tenderness of heart which characterized his father than careless observers would suppose. For some twenty years or more Sir Robert's father was one of a Uttle group of Wesleyan ministers who became famous, as much for their advanced sympathies in matters classical and political, as for their scholarship and evan- gelical fervour. Among other enterprises, they founded the Methodist Recorder (then a Liberal journal), which has since become the semi-official organ of their Church. The names of these distinguished men were Dr. Pimshon, Dr. Gervase Smith, Dr. Ebenezer Jenkins, Luke Wiseman, Charles Garrett, and William Arthur. They have since passed away, but PARENTAGE 19 in the son of at least one member of the group the old Liberal spirit still survives. Mr. George Perks commenced his ministry at Leeds, acting for the time being as President's Assistant. When he left Leeds in 1843 he was presented with a magnificent folio polyglot Bible (now in Sir Robert's library) in eight languages, and signed, ' John Bowers, William Kelk, Francis A, West, Ministers ; and William Smith and Thomas Bell, Circuit Stewards.' His first circuit was Dalkeith, where there was a small Wesleyan colony. While stationed here he attended Edinburgh University and was a student under Sir William Hamilton. He also attended the lectures of Hugh Miller, the famous geologist. The love of systematic theology, which sub- sequently won him honour among his ministerial brethren, was manifest even in these early days. His lodgings in Dalkeith chanced to be close to the palace of the Duke of Buccleuch. The duke had a steward, connected with the Methodist society, with whom he not infrequently got into dispute upon the subject of predestination and other abstruse theological problems, and the young circuit minister was more than once sent for 20 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS by the duke to settle, as a sort of theological arbitrator, the controversy upon these thorny themes. It is related that the duke's admiration of the young divine led him more than once to attend the Methodist chapel. It was while preaching in Edinburgh, during his residence at Dalkeith, that George Perks made the acquaintance, at the house of Miss Drummond (afterwards Lady Falshaw), of the lady whom he subsequently married. Her father, Alexander Dodds, was a rising architect, who, having lost his wife, left his native town of Haddington and came with his two daughters to the Scottish capital. Here he laid the foimdations of a modest fortune ; for at the conclusion of the French wars Edinburgh, Uke many other cities, entered upon a period of marvellous prosperity, during which the stately squares and streets of the western portion of the city were laid out. Unfortunately, the promising career of Alexander Dodds was early cut short, and his death was followed by that of one of his daughters. Consequently Miss Dodds, when George Perks met her, was an orphan, but she was happily the owner of several large houses PARENTAGE 21 in Moray Place, then, as now, one of the fashionable quarters of Edinburgh. These furnished her with a fair competency at that time and during the lean years of her husband's ministry. ' My mother,' says Sir Robert, " was a woman of very extensive information and a diligent reader, but she had very little humour. She was a Scotchwoman and a Presbyterian to her finger-tips, and dated everything from the Disruption.' Like many more of her countrywomen, she was a strange combination of strong common-sense and superstition, and was to the end of her days a firm believer in second-sight. Among her accomplishments were music and painting, at both of which she was decidedly clever. She was a loyal Methodist minister's wife, devoting most of her time to her home and her family. When her husband visited Africa she ac- companied him. After his death she settled at Beckenham, where, many years later, she herself entered into rest. Their first circuit after their marriage was Perth, the stipend being the almost incredibly small sum of thirty pounds a year. And the manse, which adjoined the back of the chapel, 22 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS was as poor as the salary. To add to its scanty accommodation, the chapel gallery — never needed by the meagre congregations that then assembled — had been partitioned off and added to it. It was approached by what one who heard the story of her home-coming from the bride's own lips, called ' an old outsidt staircase ' ; and the same person expatiated with natural feeling upon the extraordinary conditions which enabled the Perth church to secure the incalculable influence of George Perks's character and service, in exchange for this humble abode and thirty poimds a year. Under their new leader, however, the congregations grew ; for his sermons, closely reasoned, full of sound practical teaching, and untrammelled by notes, suited the people. But they were not to retain him long. In 1846 came the inevitable call to London, where, three years later, as already stated, the subject of this book was bom. It is not, however, to this first London home that Sir Robert's earUest recollections go back, but to Manchester, where his father travelled six years. Writing in the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine some time ago, he said : ' My earliest recollection of a Methodist PARENTAGE 23 chapel was being carried by my father up to the gallery windows of the Oldham Street Chapel, Manchester, to see Queen Victoria and the Duke of Wellington go past. John Wesley did not attach much importance to the con- secration of churches and graveyards. Indeed, he called it a Pagan ceremony. My father, I fancy, had no high classical notions of the sanctity of religious buildings ; for I well remember him frequently playing hide-and-seek with my sisters and me in Higher Broughton Chapel, which was then a very wealthy subur- ban church standing in fields.' The circuit steward was a rough old contractor, named Garstang, who was fond of the preacher's lad and often asked him to the Hall. One day the boy was lost. At last he was discovered inside the kennel of a huge mastiff, where he had spent the whole afternoon. Even in these early days it was the father's custom to take his son with him to his evening appointments, a practice which he maintained all through his ministry. Riding on Sunday was not permitted, and on the long walks it was a strict rule never to talk on their way to chapel ; but they made up for their silence on the way home. ^ 24 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS ' I remember stapng one night to the love- feast at Irwell Street Chapel,' said Sir Robert, speaking some years ago at Manchester. ' Among the men who spoke that night was an old coal-heaver on the Bridgewater Canal. I can still see him as he rose in the front of tha gallery. Walking home I noticed a falling star shoot across the sky, and turning to my father I asked him if it was true that, as folk said, some one had that moment died. ' " No, my boy," he said, " but if old Wilham, the coal-heaver, were to die to-night there would be another star in heaven." ' Another incident which stamped itself upon the boy's memory was connected with one of the less pleasant experiences that fall to the Methodist preacher's lot. This was a tedious journey during a change of circuits from Manchester to Bath, whither the family removed in 1856. The long trek was broken at Wolverhampton, where the father's relatives lived. The arrival at Bath was far from cheerful. No one expected them, and the minister's house, then a forbidding building standing in the chapel yard, was shut up. Three happy years, however, were spent in the fine old city, and Sir Robert cherishes some PARENTAGE 25 pleasant reminiscences of his home-life there. An incident occurred during this period which throws an interesting light on George Perks's tolerance and catholicity. He was a somewhat enthusiastic student of Irish ecclesiastical history, and especially of the life of St. Patrick. He had a strong opinion that modern Romanism was totally at variance with the teaching and practice of St. Patrick, and in a lecture at the Guildhall he had so vigorously asserted these opinions as to call forth in the local paper the severe condemnation of the chief Catholic priest. Walking with Robert one day in Prior's Park, Mr. Perks came sud- denly vis-d-vis with his Catholic critic, stopped, shook hands with him, and entered into cordial conversation. When the priest had gone, the following dialogue took place between father and son : ' Father, was not that man a Catholic priest ? ' ' Yes, my lad.' ' But is not that the man who attacks you in the paper ? ' ' Yes, my boy.' ' Then I should think you will never want to meet him again.' 26 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS ' I dare say we shall never meet again till we meet in heaven.' The idea of a Roman Catholic priest getting to heaven, confesses Sir Robert, was quite new to him ; but this was his father's way of training his children. He declares he never knew him to sit down and talk deliberately to them about their religious life. Instead, they were taught to think and act for them- selves. This did not mean that his parents gave little direct guidance to their children's convictions ; on the contrary. Sir Robert says : ' I think I owe my love of freedom in Church and State to my father ; my strong aversion to sacerdotalism to my mother,' And their influence in other phases of thought and feeling will be not less marked in the course of this sketch. A notable result of this method of parental training was the way in which the high tradi- tions of Methodism became inextricably en- twined with the boy's whole life. It would be as hard for Sir Robert to-day to cut himself adrift from his shadow as from the Church of his youth. Speaking thirty years ago of the problem of attaching children to the Church of their fathers, he said that, though PARENTAGE 27 not himself an undiscriminating believer in the revival of ancient traditions to achieve that purpose, his own experience would tell a tale. Fourteen or fifteen years before, he declared, his father had led him into Wesley's Chapel, taken him round to the Communion table at the back, and pointed out to him the tablet to the memory of John Wesley, and then to the monument of John Fletcher ; and afterwards told him how his own grand- father had taken the latter's place at the class-room at Madeley, and looked after the early Methodists. The influence of such episodes as that, he concluded, added to the faithful life and triumphant death of his father, had so impressed him that for his own part he could never forsake the Methodist Church. More recently, at the Bristol Conference, he related how when he first came to that city, forty years before, his father took him for a tour of its streets and, between his observa- tions on the sights they saw, told him of the illustrious men who fought in bygone days the glorious battles of Nonconformity — of Penn and Fox, of Wesley and Whitefield, of Robert Hall and John Foster, and of that 28 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS giant of power and resolution who towered above them all, Oliver Cromwell. The little poetry, romance, and imagination he possessed, he said, were to be attributed to that and to similar talks with his father in Bristol and other cities. But his strongest Methodist associations seem to have been formed at City Road, whither his father removed in 1864. ' In those days,' he says, in the magazine already quoted, ' the preachers at Wesley's Chapel lived on either side of the chapel. This was one of the secrets of their power. Wesley House, now a small museum, was my father's house. My httle bedroom was John Wesley's old " praying-room." My mother and I used to read Wesley's Life, and in fancy we peopled the house once again with the friends of the great evangelist. Across the way was the sacred burial-place of the Puritans, where rest the bones of John Bunyan and Daniel Defoe. ' It was from the windows of Wesley's House that we saw Garibaldi enter London in triumph after the Liberation of Italy. My father and I made a huge Italian flag, which we hung at the gate, with Wesley's name below, and we were abundantly rewarded PARENTAGE 29 when the Italian patriot rose in his carriage and took off his grey slouched hat, and saluted Wesley's name and the flag of his enfranchised country. A few years later it fell to my father's lot, aided by two generous Lancashire laymen, to start the Wesleyan Mission in the Eternal City.' These were some of the formative influences of the boy's home-life on its distinctively religious side. For the rest, the discipline was somewhat Spartan-like, as befitted the household of a Methodist preacher. Yet was it tempered by a serene happiness, which, notwithstanding the daily discussion of matters of public interest, neither controversy nor the faintest approach to a difference ever in- terrupted or disturbed. CHAPTER II SCHOOLDAYS Of the many decisions which parents have to make concerning their sons, none is more momentous than the selection of a tutor or the choice of a school. Character and destiny here both hang in the balance. Considerations of health, of temperament, and of vocation have to be carefully weighed, for a blunder often means for the victim, not only present torture, but also future incapacity and all the difference between failure and success. On this point young Perks's parents appear to have been wisely guided. They showed the same care in the education of their children as they did in their religious training. In Robert's case public and private schools nicely divided their favour. When the family settled at Bath, he was at first sent to a seminary kept by a 30 SCHOOLDAYS 31 Mr. Shaw, who subsequently transferred his estabUshment, with gratifying success, to a London suburb. But close at hand was the New Kingswood School, the successor of the ' Old ' Kingswood founded near Bristol by John Wesley in 1746 ; and it was with a view to entering his son as a scholar there, and in order that he might be near him during his first terms, that Mr. Perks had accepted the call to the Bath Circuit. To New Kingswood, then, in 1858, Robert duly went. The fascinating history of this remarkable foundation has been well told by ' Three Old Boys ' in a comprehensive volume published a few years ago. Widely as life at the new school differed from that at the old, it was nevertheless, even so late as young Perks's time, sufficiently rigorous. Boys of the period have given varying accounts of the establish- ment. One speaks of it as ' a rough, cruel place,' where the ' punishments were brutal ' ; another says ' the tone was good, healthy, and fair ' ; and a third, that there was ' httle immorahty, bullying, or unfairness,' yet ' the boys were cowed and spiritless.' Probably the worst that could be said of it was that the religious atmosphere was none too 32 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS wholesome. There is said to have been ' too much spiritual analysis.' But this in Robert's case was a defect which parental training neutralized. Another mistake was that, although the situation of the school is one of exceptional beauty and full of historic interest, little use was made of the fact. The boys were unduly confined within the school precincts, and so came but little under the humanizing influence of the magnificent prospects by which they were surrounded. Games were not so highly organized then as they are to-day. Cricket was played, though not under ideal conditions, and for a time young Perks was captain of his team. Foot- ball was allowed only in the asphalted play- ground, where special rules had to be made to meet the conditions ; moreover, it was usually prohibited in winter. Owing to the difficulties which beset these manlier games, minor pas- times, hardly less dear to the schoolboy's heart, such as fives, racquets, prisoner's base, I spy, marbles, tops, tallywags, and hopscotch, had all the greater vogue. A word must be said about the dietary. For breakfast and tea this consisted solely of milk and dry bread. The milk, which was SCHOOLDAYS 33 warmed by the addition of hot water in very cold weather, was served in tin cans. Leaden spoons were also supplied, and tradi- tion says that their handles were often much abbreviated, and that in many cases their bowls were punctured, the holes having to be plugged before the spoons could be of service. Happily, the supply of bread was practically unlimited ; when a boy had devoured his plateful of ' wholes,' he might come again for ' halves,' and yet again for ' quarters.' For dinner, beef and mutton were served six days a week, being followed chiefly by rice and treacle. The rice and treacle were boiled together, and both courses were served on the same plate. (Treacle and mutton gravy, ugh !) On Saturday there was originally only one course — bread and cheese. This, how- ever, was altered by the Rev. Theophilus Woolmer, who, under the conviction that abstinence from meat for forty-eight hours was not conducive to health, substituted hash. When his committee objected to the expense, he sacrificed the whole of his meagre salary of a hundred pounds a year to maintain the change. The aboUtion of the bread-and-cheese diet 3 34 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS did away with a famous delicacy of the boys' own manufacture, known as ' cheese-cakes.' The recipe is given by the authors of the History of Kingswood : ' Take one of the small bun-shaped loaves served out for Saturday's dinner, and out of the thick flat crust at the bottom carefully cut a piece about an inch square. Scoop out the crumby interior and eat it at once. Cut up the cheese into small pieces, add salt and pepper. Stuff the hollowed loaf with the mixture, replace the square of crust, and tie all round with a bit of string. " Convey " the whole out of the hall, and, as soon as opportunity serves, put it in the hot ashes in one of the stoves, and there leave it for half an hour, or longer in case of any danger of discovery. After which, eat on the sly.' Mr. Woolmer was followed in the governor- ship by the Rev. F. A. West, who, notwith- standing his many excellences, was extremely unpopular with the boys on account of his severity, which physical weakness and ill health undoubtedly aggravated. He held the office for seven years, the first five of which synchronized with the later years of Perks's term at the school. Twice during Mr. West's SCHOOLDAYS 35 governorship, once in 1863 and again in 1864-5, there was an outbreak of scarlet fever. On the former occasion there were twenty-four cases and four deaths ; on the latter, one death. A not less serious epidemic of the same malady had occurred in i860, when fifty boys, four masters, six servants, and all Mr. Woolmer's seven children, were stricken down. On neither occasion, however, was young Perks attacked. Whatever modicum of truth there may be in Sir William Maule's famous dictum, that whereas private schools turn out ' poor crea- tures,' public schools make ' sad dogs,' it would not seem from the foregoing sketch that there was any great danger of the Kings- wood boys sacrificing to passing pleasures and surreptitious dissipations the energies more justly claimed by their studies ; while, on the other hand, those characteristics of public- school life which tend to sharpen the faculties for dealing with human affairs existed to the full. Robert's seven years at . Kingswood were undoubtedly an excellent preparation for the career that lay before him, though it does not appear whether his parents had at the time any presentiment of what that career 36 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R, W. PERKS would be. ' Possibly the best thing that can be said of Kingswood in those days,' he stated some time ago, ' is that the preachers' sons were taught habits of endurance, fortitude, and self- reliance. We learned earlier than usual that life is a conflict, that friendships are fleeting, and that knowledge is not always power.' As to his school record, he attacked his studies with the seriousness and determination characteristic of him, gaining distinction in mathematics, while acquitting himself well in all subjects. The official school orders from 1858 to midsummer i860 are incomplete. It is therefore impossible to follow closely his position during that period ; but in July i860 he held the ninth place in Class IV., there being sixteen boys in the class and seven classes in the school. At midsummer in the following year he appears in Class III. Then, unfortunately, the orders once more break down, and there is no further record of his name until July 1864. By that date he had won his way to the sixth place in Class I., a position which he retained throughout his last year. Of the five classmates above him four at least have attained to positions open only to men of high character and undoubted SCHOOLDAYS 37 ability. One was Richard Green Moulton, now Professor of Literary Theory and Interpreta- tion at Chicago University ; another was Thomas Frederick Lockyer, who graduated at London University and is to-day a dis- tinguished Wesleyan minister ; the third, George Joseph Morris, graduated at the Royal University of Ireland and at present occupies a responsible position in the Civil Service ; while the fourth, Richard Waddy Moss, is well known as a Doctor of Divinity and a tutor in Systematic Theology at Didsbury College. Among the young student's contemporaries at one time or another were also Lord Justice Moulton, Dr. W. T. Davison, of Richmond College, the Rev. John Hornabrook, Secretary of the Wesleyan Conference, and George Perress Sanderson, the elephant-hunter. How did Robert impress his schoolmates ? Some, who were in higher or lower classes, can recall no details of their associations with him, and retain, as one of his more distinguished fellow students puts it, ' only a general re- collection of an active, vivacious, energetic boy with considerable force of character.' Others, like Dr. Waddy Moss, Rev. T. F. Lockyer, B.A., 38 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS and Mr. Morris, were more intimate, and have reminiscences of a more particular and interest- ing nature. Thus Mr. Lockyer says : ' Robert W. Perks was one of those with whom my associations were closer than with most in my school-days at Kingswood between forty and fifty years ago, and the comradeship thus begun was continued in the years that followed. He was one for whom, even in boyhood, I had not only a liking, but a great respect. His character, already well formed, was sturdy and strong, and his judgement shrewd even in matters that usually lie outside a schoolboy's cognizance. Anything mean could never be suggested in connexion with his name ; indeed, there was a wholesome severity on his part, both of tone and of look, which effectually discouraged such behaviour in others. While not exactly a briUiant scholar, he yet worked with such dogged determination that he held his own with most of his compeers, and left within a very few places of the captaincy of the school. Several times since our paths began to diverge I have owed much to his practical sagacity in matters upon which I have asked his advice, and still follow his career with unabated interest.' SCHOOLDAYS 39 Mr. G. J. Morris recollects that, although the rules did not rigidly enforce the wearing of the school uniform, his classmate generally wore his 'sheepskin,' as the college coat was called, even when he was one of the seniors. He also speaks of his friend's ' caustic wit,' which was generally directed against objects justly regarded as reprehensible ; and declares, ' He would not spare a sham or a humbug.' Dr. Waddy Moss was at Kingswood for several years contemporaneously with Sir Robert, and for five quarters in succession the two were next to one another in the quarterly classification. He says : ' Sir Robert was a very pleasant boy to sit next to — always kind and agreeable, and whilst a thorough boy, not given to cranks of an extreme type. During part of the time, his father was one of the resident ministers in Bath ; and thereby associations with Bath houses were created, which were maintained afterwards. To several of the boys this proved a great convenience at a time when no one was allowed outside the school premises, except in the procession to chapel or under the personal charge of a master. The licence granted Sir Robert admitted of the delivery of messages. 40 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS of dealings with a favourite shop in Guinea Lane, and occasionally of other surreptitious proceedings. There is a tradition of a visit to a racecourse, in which other boys took part ; but it is better to think of Sir Robert as the sole culprit. ' In those days the highest form was called the First Class. Sir Robert and myself were there : and his name was appended to several documents of which copies survive. One was a petition to the committee for the use of the field adjoining the desolate playground. It was a revolutionary proceeding, such as might have been expected from the character of the ringleaders, and it closed with the re- quest that the reply of the committee might be communicated to the boys. They were unwilling to be treated with the disdain which had been shown the masters eight or ten months before. ' Sir Robert was not the poet of the school in those days — no one would suspect him of that. The poet was a boy who has for many years acquitted himself well in a southern rectory. But Sir Robert was the inter- mediary between the school and the city, and either he, or an older boy, now a minister of SCHOOLDAYS 41 some eminence, must be held responsible for the circulation of the lines beginning — I'm a Kingswood boy, you see, The height of aristocracy — which first appeared on a doll dressed in the Kingswood costume of that day and exposed for sale at a bazaar in Bath. ' In play and in study Sir Robert gave a good account of himself. He excelled in mathematics rather than in classics, but could hold his own in any subject. He was at once popular amongst his contemporaries, and independent ; and those who knew him best recall the memory of him with pleasure, and are proud of the good work he has done in the Church and State.' Dr. Moss's reference to his friend's lack of the poetic sense — a defect probably inherited from his Scotch mother — finds amusing con- firmation later on in this chapter, in connexion with Sir Robert's first visit to Paris. It also recalls a remark of Dr. Morley Punshon at the centenary celebrations of Wesley's Chapel. Sir Robert had preceded the famous orator, and had dropped some word or other which revealed his unpoetic strain, whereupon Dr. 42 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS Punshon took him gently to task and declared with exquisite pleasantry that where there ought to have been on his young friend's head the bump of reverence, there was a ' deep hole.' The visit to the racecourse, notwithstanding the Doctor's suspicious disclaimer that ' it is better to think of Sir Robert as the sole culprit,' was certainly not made alone. Indeed, on a fairly recent occasion one of Sir Robert's fellow adventurers stood with him on a public platform. Borrowing the Doctor's phraseology, however, it is perhaps ' better to think ' of the escapade as never having been wholly carried out, and as having been essayed rather in the spirit of a budding social reformer than in that of a would-be sportsman, seeing that a few years ago Sir Robert unequivocally declared : ' Never in my Ufe have I been on a race-course, and I have never made a bet.' On leaving Kingswood, in 1865, Sir Robert went to Eldon House, Clapham, a private school kept by Mr. Henry Jefferson, his old head master at Bath. Mr. Jefferson was a man of beautiful character, of strong moral sense, and a teacher of transcendent power. He specially regretted the rule under which SCHOOLDAYS 43 boys were compelled to quit Kingswood upon reaching the age of fifteen, and it was largely his failure to get this rule altered that led to his resignation. Upon opening his own school at Clapham, the sons of the Methodist laymen, attracted by his scholarship, thronged to his establishment ; but mifortunately its financial administration was not so sound as its curri- culum, and in 1873 it was closed. Sir Robert regards Mr. Jefferson as the most successful head master Kingswood ever had. Mathematics was his forte, and geology his hobby. Many a Saturday afternoon did Robert's back ache carrying home bags of stones in which the poor head master hoped to find fossils, and, like many another mining speculator, found nothing. In spite of his mathematics and geologizing, Mr. Jefferson was something of a poet and romancer ; a fact of which, some few years later, his old scholar had a curious illustration. Sir Robert had earned a few guineas by an article in one of the reviews, and, the Franco- German War being just ended, he determined after a long balancing of ways and means to spend them on a first trip to Paris. Waiting at Rouen on his way from Dieppe, whom 44 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W, PERKS should he encounter on the platform but Henry Jefferson. ' Perks,' said he, ' we have half an hour to spend here. Let us go to the Market Place and see the spot where Joan of Arc was burned — we have just time.' So away they started, the little head master striding in front and his yotmg friend following. Threading their way among the stalls they came at length to a spot in the centre, facing the Cathedral, where La Pucelle laid down her life for France. ' Little Jeff,' as the scholars used to call him, stepped on to the historic slab, lifted his hat, spent some moments in contemplation, turned his eyes heaven- wards, and then, suddenly recollecting the time, cried to his companion as he moved from the spot — ' Now, Perks, you have only a minute. Get on the stone.' To please his old master and perhaps also from habit. Sir Robert did as he was told. ' How do you feel ? ' anxiously inquired his friend. ' I feel, sir,' he replied, ' exactly the same as I did when I stood on that other stone.' Mr. Jefferson heaved a sigh, and in a few SCHOOLDAYS 45 moments they were back at the station, both doubtless wondering at the other's strange bent of mind. But, Uke most men of affairs. Sir Robert probably professes more indifference to the poetic side of life than he actually feels. At any rate, in those early days he was as sus- ceptible to the romance and mystery of London as any other young man. When he left Eldon House he had no conception what he was going to be, and to himself seemed to have no special aptitude for anything. His father wished to send him to Cambridge, but for him this had indifferent attractions. Like a bit of plastic clay, therefore, ready for the potter, he roamed the magic streets of London, giving himself up to the feelings and historic memories they awakened. No great pageant passed through the city but he was there. He traversed the ancient and now 'J demolished squares. He took journeys up and down the river. His imagination was fired by the recitals of an old minister who, when a boy, had tramped to London to attend John Wesley's funeral, and who told how at that time there was not a single house between the ' Angel ' at Isling- ton and City Road Chapel, and how he well 46 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS remembered getting over a stile at the top of Lombard Street into some fields. A memor- able experience on these London wanderings was the hanging of some pirates at the Old Bailey. Billingsgate Market, Covent Garden, and the old buildings now superseded by the Law Courts, with the fine civic mansions hard by, he knew well, as he did also that magnifi- cent view of the city which is to be seen at dawn from the ball of St. Paul's. ' A great capital is a country in miniature,' said Mac- aulay ; and these trampings on foot through all corners of the metropolis and at all hours — the sole means by which cities can be studied to good purpose — have often proved of service to Sir Robert in one phase or another of his public or commercial life. It was his mother's desire to keep him at home, perhaps, more than his own lack of in- terest, which knocked the Cambridge project on the head. The urgent advice of an tmcle, an Anglican dean and incumbent at Melbourne, who attributed his own ecclesiastical progress to his having been a student of King's College, London, was, that his nephew should be sent to that closely preserved Anglican school of learning ; and as this counsel came less into SCHOOLDAYS 4; conflict with his mother's caution, or second- sight, or whatever it was, that made her wish to keep her boy in London, it readily found acceptance. Nor has Sir Robert ever had reason to regret it. For three years he attended King's College, and never, his friends declare, did a youth work harder. He took most of the college prizes, one for divinity, one for mathematics, a third for modern languages, and sundry others. He also won the Dasent Prize given by the Editor of The Times for an essay on ' The Influence of the Reformation on the Gentlemen of England, as shown by Spenser in his Faerie Queene.' Another essay prize which fell to him was that founded by Sir James Stephen, the subject being ' Ancient and Modem Systems of Colonization Compared.' Altogether his career at King's College was a brilliant one. He matriculated at London University in honours, and gained honours in classics, English, and modern languages in his B.A. examination. His tutors were nearly all Anghcan clergy. Canon Lonsdale was his classics tutor, and he took the Canon's prize for a Latin essay. His tutors in theology were Canon J elf, whom he 48 LIPE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS describes as ' a high and dry old Churchman, a staunch believer in Church and State ' ; and Dean Plumptre, ' a theologian of a far different stamp.' His tutors in mathematics and English history were also canons. But the man to whom he owed most was the famous Preacher of the Rolls and historian of Eliza- bethan times, Dr. Brewer, under whose guid- ance he wrote every week a short essay on current topics, some literary, some historical, and some political. Notwithstanding the strong Anglican at- mosphere of the College, and in spite of the fact that every morning for three years he had to listen to the Anglican liturgy. Sir Robert freely confesses that not a soul interfered with his religious views. ' I was, I think, the only Dissenter of my year,' he says, ' but I came through this fiery ordeal without, so far as I am aware, having the smell of clericalism or Anglicanism upon me.' Whilst pursuing these studies he decided, much against his mother's wishes, and with the tacit consent of his father, to enter for the Indian Civil Service. Thrice he sat for the examination and thrice he failed. Each year the Government took fewer candidates. SCHOOLDAYS 49 Once he escaped by only three places, another time by ten. Thwarted thus by destiny, and yielding to the dissuasions of his father's friend, Sir Francis Lycett, he tried no more. Had he succeeded, what influence would he have exercised on the administration of our great dependency ? Would his penetration, tenacity, and genius for finance have raised him to eminence, or would the East have swallowed him up, as it has so many other gifted men ? Interesting as the speculation is, it cannot here be pursued. Circumstances decided that he had to stay at home, and what has to be is best. Before leaving this chapter, the reader may like to know which of his studies Sir Robert foimd most useful to him in making his way in the world. In reply to a question of that purport he once said : ' I am speaking of forty years ago. Events have moved rapidly since. EngUsh life is not the same. Our cities are different. Commerce moves along new lines. Science has altered much. England is more of a cosmopolitan exchange and entrepdt for the world. Dis- tances have been bridged. Men act more quickly and think less. Journalism does too 4 so LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W, PERKS much of the thinking. Men are less reliant. Woman has invaded the domains of trade, and wields less power in the home. Money can do more than it could forty years ago. There is less respect for authority. People are so keen to be thought " broad-minded " and " liberal " that they will tolerate anything rather than be thought " fanatical " or " bigoted." All this has its reflex effect upon education. If you ask what branch of my study helped me most in my future work, I should say, first, mathematics and the kindred studies of physical science ; next, the study of the literature and history of my own and other lands ; and lastly, such acquaintance with modem languages as I was able, as a student, to acquire.' CHAPTER III A CHAPTER OF BEGINNINGS Cambridge and the Civil Service having both been set aside as unsuitable or impractic- able, the problem of the future once more obtruded itself. A reasonable inquiry, par- ticularly from Methodist readers, will be, Was the Christian ministry never entertained as a desirable solution ? Robert's father was a minister, and most ministers cherish the hope that one at least of their sons may follow their own profession. Moreover, the very atmo- sphere of the manse, with its unworldly ideals and altruistic sympathies, commonly suggests the ministry as the most covetable of callings. In young Perks's case, these influences must have been strengthened by his long associa- tion at Kingswood with other youths who all, without exception, came from Methodist SI 52 LIFE-STORY OP SIR R. W. PERKS preachers' homes. How potent this combina- tion of forces has proved in many instances is seen in the fact that of two thousand six hundred and twenty-three boys who attended Kingswood and Woodhouse Grove (the latter also formerly a denominational school for ministers' sons), six hundred and seven, or more than twenty per cent., have since entered the service of some branch of the Christian Church, at home or abroad. But high as has ever been Sir Robert's respect for the vocation which his father so conspicuously adorned, it does not appear that at any time he himself felt any call in that direction. And his characteristic good sense told him that without a divine call the position was nothing short of bondage. On the other hand, his father, with his particular ideas of parental training, never suggested it. He, too, felt that if the call came it must come from above. On one occasion, Sir Robert says, his father partially bared his heart on the subject. One of Mr. Perks's colleagues in the ministry had just called, and Robert and his father were left talking alone in the study. ' Bob,' said the latter, turning suddenly to his son, ' I think that the devil never tempts A CHAPTER OF BEGINNINGS 53 a Methodist preacher more severely than when he tries to make him think that his son is called to the work of the ministry.' Then, after a pause, he added : ' It is just what the preacher wants to think. It is the dearest wish of his heart. The devil comes when he does not know what to do with his boy, and offers him an easy entrance into a profession for life.' That, however, was as far as the matter ever went. After leaving King's College, then, in 1871, the young man found himself once more at a loose end. A splendid education, a con- stitution like iron, and an unbounded belief in his own future, all these he possessed : but he still lacked the one thing which could turn them to account — a definite life-purpose. It was at this juncture and in circumstances which seem almost fortuitous, that a suggestion was made which at length supplied his need and turned his pent-up energies in the right direction. Residing in the Highbury Circuit at this time was Sir Francis Lycett, known to the world at large as leading partner in a famous glove firm, but better known among Metho- dists as one of the founders of the Wesleyan 54 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS Metropolitan Chapel Building Fund. Between this gentleman and the Rev. G. T. Perks, who for a time was superintendent of the circuit, there was naturally some intimacy. When Sir Francis was Sheriff of London, in 1867, Mr. Perks acted as his chaplain. It was out of this friendship that the aforesaid suggestion was made, and it came about on this wise. The young man was walking one morning in Highbury Park, when he was accosted by his father's friend, who, after some general in- quiries, asked whether he had yet decided what he was going to do. Receiving a negative reply he said : ' Well, I think you would make a lawyer. I am going to the City to-morrow morning to see my solicitors, and if you like to come with me I will see if they have an opening for you, if you would care to be articled to them.' Having consulted his father, the next day he accompanied Sir Francis to the office of Messrs. De Jersey & Micklem, a highly respectable, old-fashioned City firm practising in Gresham Street. The senior partner of this house, Mr. Henry de Jersey, was the son of a French Methodist minister. He was a Low Churchman of some- what narrow views. Though his legal know- A CHAPTER OF BEGINNINGS 55 ledge was not profound, his knowledge of men, and especially City Corporation people, was unrivalled. He never missed a City function, big or little, and his affection for the Guildhall was ' passing the love of women.' He lived to a great age, and left a small fortune. The second partner, Mr. Thomas Micklem, was a Baptist. He was a very able lawyer, and a farmer to boot, owning a considerable estate in Hertfordshire. No difficulty was experienced in finding Robert a position with the firm, and he com- menced his duties and studies forthwith. His articles cost three hundred pounds. Speaking some years ago, at a meeting of lawyers, about his experiences in this law office, he said : ' I well remember standing in the dusty Uttle outer of&ce, waiting to be ushered into Mr. Secondary de Jersey's august presence. On the wall I saw an ordinary wooden kitchen clock, bearing this ominous inscription : " This clock was presented to the firm of De Jersey & Micklem in acknowledgement of their services in conducting successfully the case of Brown v. Jones, carrying this case from the Queen's Bench to the Court of Appeal and thence to the House of Lords, where judgement 56 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS was given for the plaintiff." I thought : Is that all ? ' It was now that his training in essay-writing under Dr. Brewer stood him in good stead ; for during the next four years he received no remuneration, and had perforce to support himself by journalism. The famous Preacher of the Rolls had done his work well. The young law-student was possessed of a crisp, epigrammatic style, which he was now able to turn to good account in articles and reviews contributed to various newspapers. Two notable articles written for the London Quarterly Review, one on the French mihtary system, and the other on ' Modem MunicipaU- ties,' attracted considerable attention. During each of these strenuous years, he calculates, he earned in this way fully two hundred pounds. I have said that the years were strenuous. That they must have been so the reader can judge for himself. One of Sir Robert's old schoolfellows, who was in touch with him in these days, says it was no uncommon thing to find his friend reading law at five in the morning, and this often after he had been working late on the previous night. As a matter of fact, Sir Robert made it an inflexible rule A CHAPTER OF BEGINNINGS 57 never to be in bed of a morning after five. To enforce this rule when heavy duties and late hours pleaded hard for its suspension, he invented an ingenious device. This consisted of a long glass tube filled with water, nicely balanced over his head and attached by a string to an alarum. At the desired hour the bell rang and awakened the sleeper ; if within a few seconds he did not leap from his bed and avert the calamity, the descending weight of the clock destroyed the balance of the tube, and down poured the water on his guilty head. Another faculty besides that of immense industry was now soon to be brought into play. Although he had received no special training in this direction, he developed a singular gift of draughtsmanship, by which in a short time he was able to execute a sketch or a plan with considerable precision. The way in which this talent came into use not only throws an interesting light upon Sir Robert's character, but also might well form a con- tribution to the romance of modern railway enterprise. He had noticed that the successful men in law, in medicine, and in literature, were the men who specialized. Railway 58 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS construction had always been a favourite study : now came his chance for railway law. The underground railways of London were then being constructed, so with no little zest he began to acquaint himself with their history. The District Railway in those days, coming from the West, stopped at Mansion House. The Metropolitan line, coming from Paddington, stopped at Moorgate Street. The latter, which was the older and richer company, was pushing its way forward to Bishopsgate Street, but the less fortunate District line was short of money and stood still. An Act of Parliament, however, had been obtained for a new line, called ' Newman's Line,' coupling up the two railways by running up Queen Victoria Street, and thence via Comhill to Aldgate. To the study of this and other Acts, Sir Robert gave up all his leisure. He made himself master of all the interests involved, and waded patiently through all the Acts of Parliament, as well as the contracts made with the public bodies whose rights, real or imaginary, were protected. The fascination of the subject grew upon him. He drew sketches of what appeared to him to be improvements in th? rpute, and devoted whole A CHAPTER OF BEGINNINGS 59 Saturday afternoons to surveying the affected properties. The strange thing about all this is, that he had not the slightest motive for all his labour, except that the subject interested him. The firm to which he was articled had no railway business, neither did they practise in the Parliamentary Committees. But as events proved, his work was not thrown away. Within four years from the expiration of his articles he was the legal adviser of the Metro- politan Railway. This position was worth from three to four thousand a year, and Sir Robert retained it for fifteen years, resigning it when he entered Parliament, in 1892. Anticipating somewhat the course of events, I may here interpolate a few particulars of some of the important duties in this capacity which devolved upon him. The Metropolitan system at that time ran no further north than Brondesbury, and one of the first tasks he had to perform was to take charge in Parliament of all the struggles to extend the line first to Harrow, then to Pinner and Rickmansworth, and ultimately to Aylesbury. He negotiated the purchase of the old Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway 6o LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS and the Metropolitan and St. John's Wood line. The policy of the Board was to convert what was purely a London line into a suburban railway — a policy which secured to the Metro- pohtan a long IcEise of prosperity, only to be disturbed, as it so rudely was, by the advent of electricity as a motive power for railway purposes. During Sir Robert's legal connexion with the line, the Inner Circle — the name recalls many entertaining stories, which, however, I must not stop to relate — was completed, and extensions of the Metropolitan Railway were projected and constructed to Whitechapel, and, under the London Hospital, to East London and New Cross. Two important extensions of the line which he fought suc- cessfully through Parhament were never made. One was a short railway from Brondesbury to Hendon, and the other, one from Aylesbury to Oxford. His intimate knowledge of the London railways, and especially of the undergroimd lines, raised him, in 1901, on the death of Mr. J. S. Forbes, to the Chairmanship of the Metropolitan District Railway. The company was then about to embark upon the very A CHAPTER OF BEGINNINGS 6i doubtful but necessary policy of converting its system from steam to electric traction, and Sir Robert presided over the destinies of the line during the three critical years which this enormous operation occupied. His duties brought him into close contact with leading English and American financiers, who provided the necessary funds for the work. When the transformation was effected he retired in favour of the Chairman who was entrusted with the task of operating the line when ready for traffic. The gigantic nature of these and the allied electrification schemes will be understood when it is stated that capital amounting to sixteen million pounds sterling was involved. In addition to the financial negotiations, however, Sir Robert had to submit to Parlia- ment the numerous proposals of the different rail- and tramways, and to guide the promoters of these extensive systems in their various agreements with the local authorities and other parties affected. Whoever has benefited by the construction of these important London lines, certainly the travelling public have no reason to complain, albeit some inevitable grievances, such as overcrowding, have yet to be redressed. 62 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS But to resume the thread of my story. Sir Robert soon turned his knowledge of London to good account in other directions than railway enterprise. The commercial instinct, which, however it may be denounced by those who lack it, is merely power to see opportunities, combined with courage and ability to use them, was in him early developed and sagaciously applied. Five-and-thirty years ago some of the large estates which are now covered with thriving metropoUtan suburbs were only just beginning to be laid out for building purposes. Sir Robert, like many other wide-awake men, interested himself to advantage in some of the more promising schemes. He also made some judicious deals in house property, occasionally reselling his purchases at a profit without having so much as seen the deeds. But all through the years his penetration has saved him from becoming identified with unsound or question- able undertakings. In a letter some years ago to the Glasgow Herald on the Limited Liability Acts, he made incidental reference to this fact. ' During the last twenty years,' he wrote, ' I have acted professionally for public com- panies, many of them manufacturing and A CHAPTER OF BEGINNINGS 63 trading concerns, with an aggregate paid-up capital of more than a hundred and fifty miUion pounds. In only one case has any of these companies gone into liquidation, and that was one with a capital of less than ten thousand pounds. The companies which have in my experience been managed with the greatest care, enterprise, personal attention and success, have been the " private " rather than the " public " companies. One of the main elements of success has, however, been the presence upon the directorate, and in the management, of men holding a substantial interest in the ordinary or unprotected stocks.' On leaving De Jersey & Micklem's, in 1876, Sir Robert at once entered into business for himself, in partnership with his father's friend, Mr. Henry Hartley Fowler (now Lord Wolver- hampton), and Mr. Charles Corser. The latter retired in 1879, but the association with the former extended, on terms of the closest intimacy, over a period of five-and-twenty years. The locality chosen for the new business was Leadenhall Street, the reason being that Sir Robert had made a speciality of mercantile and Admiralty law. Moreover, his father had invested some money in steamships, upon 64 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS the advice of a Methodist shipowner ; and this gentleman had buoyed up his guileless friend with the hope that directly his son opened his office the legal business of at least one shipping firm would pour through its portals. The hope was never realized, however, for the worthy man, who bore a well-known Methodist name, never gave Sir Robert six- pennyworth of work to the day of his death. One wonders whether this and other like experiences can have been in Sir Robert's mind when he framed his Methodist Brother- hood proposals, referred to on a later page. In commencing business for himself he made some rather curious rules, which had not a little to do with his financial success. He determined never to handle Criminal business. County Court and Divorce Court work was also declined. He shut the door to building societies, and he discouraged lady clients. He once told a friend that in the whole course of his experience he had never done legal work for more than three ladies. This singular prejudice, so far as legal matters were concerned, against the gentler sex, was based chiefly upon a lively recollection, in no way dimmed even at the present day, of a A CHAWEn 01* BEGINNINGS 65 doctor's widow who used to visit the firm to whom he was articled. This lady, who might for her persistency have served as the prototype of Miss Flite, in Bleak House, invariably pulled out her knitting, was always accompanied by an extremely talkative daughter, and without exception grumbled immoderately at her bills. Business at first did not come pouring in. Indeed, for several months the prospect was by no means promising. A story is told on good authority of a little incident which took place at this juncture, while he was still living with his parents, and which illustrates his indomitable faith in the future. The dearth of business was such that, out of feeling for his father, who plied him nightly with questions as to what the day had brought forth, he somewhat dreaded the homegoing. One day Mr. Perks saw it announced that his son had promised fifty pounds to some church fund, and anxiously inquired where the money was to come from. ' Oh,' came the reply, with apparent indifference, " it will be all right ; it will come from somewhere.' Next day, runs the story, he had a client who paid him a hundred pounds. It was during a short holiday at Llandudno, 5 66 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS in the summer of 1877, that he met with his first piece of good fortune, and this he owed more to his own push and enterprise than to any merely fortuitous combination of cir- cumstances. Wandering round the district, he observed the Conway tubular and suspension bridges. Curiosity led him to read up the engineering and commercial history of these two well-known structures, one of which belonged to the Crown and the other to the North-Western Railway. The former, ad- ministered by the Treasury, was crushed by a heavy debt, and it levied usurious tolls, which killed trade and handicapped traffic. Sir Robert was sitting one afternoon in the coffee-room at the hotel where he was stay- ing, when up drove a four-in-hand. Its four occupants had just paid monstrous tolls, and were angry and excited. They cursed every one connected with the bridge. Sir Robert listened at the next table, and in a quiet interval interposed. ' Gentlemen,' said he, ' I think if you tolerate such a state of things you richly deserve all you get.' The travellers stared in amazement. ' What is to be done ? ' they asked. A CHAPTER OF BEGINNINGS 6y ' If you will allow me, I will tell you.' And Sir Robert proceeded to unfold a plan for taking the bridge out of the hands of the Crown, cancelling the huge debt, vesting the property in local commissioners, reducing the tolls and increasing the revenue. The gentlemen proved to be the late Lord Penrhyn, then Mr. Douglas-Pennant, Sir Richard Bulkeley, Lord-Lieutenant of the county, Mr. Buckley Williams, M.P. for Anglesea, and a Mr. Wood, a rich dye-maker. So struck were they with Sir Robert's sugges- tion, that they engaged him on the spot to bring into Parliament the necessary Bill, which he successfully carried the following session, after striking a good bargain with the late Lord Derby, then Financial Secretary to the Treasury. The only commercial point which the Treasury of those days seemed not to grasp was, that by reducing tolls you increase revenue. Lord Penrhyn afterwards recommended Sir Robert to the Marquess of Bristol, who was connected with some railway projects in the Eastern Counties. For many months Lord Bristol, his brother. Lord Francis Hervey, and Sir Robert, used to make periodical visits 68 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. FERKS to the Rutland Arms, Newmarket. The last-named has on more than one occasion astonished his friends by sa3dng that in his earlier days he was a frequent visitor to the famous racing town. Lord Penrhyn's success over the Conway Bridge helped him to win the county seat for his party at a subsequent election. He never forgot Sir Robert's services, and it was through his friendship indirectly that the latter ultimately made the acquaint- ance of one whose business connexions con- tributed perhaps more liberally than any other to Sir Robert's fortunes. I refer to the late Sir Edward William Watkin, of whom more will have to be said in the following chapter. It was when business began at length to flow into the Leadenhall Street of&ce, as just narrated, that a heavy blow fell upon Sir Robert's Highbury home. Of his six sisters, two had died very young, one at Perth and the other at City Road. His eldest sister, a girl of great beauty and remarkable cultiu-e, passed away at the age of three-and-twenty. Death was now to claim the head of the house. On Saturday, May 26, 1877, the Rev. G. T. Perks travelled to Rotherham to preach on the following day the annual missionary sermons. A CHAPTER OF BEGINNINGS 69 By one of those singular coincidences to which our forefathers would have given a distinctly religious interpretation, he preached on the Sunday evening upon the solemn subject of death, and was addressing some long-remem- bered words of comfort to any among his auditors who might have been bereaved, when he was himself struck down with fatal illness. Sir Robert was sent for, and shortly after his arrival the honoured servant of God, with a smile on his lips, and clasped in his son's arms, passed peacefully away, saying : ' Bob, my boy, tell mother it is all right.' This triumphant scene, crowning a life of exemplary devotion and integrity, made an impression upon Sir Robert which has never left him, and which has perhaps more profoundly influenced his whole career than any other personal force with which he has come in contact. In the succeeding year the little circle was yet further decreased by the death of a fourth sister ; and with Sir Robert's marriage in the following spring the Highbury home was finally broken up. Of the two surviving sisters one died in middle life, leaving six sons and three daughters ; the other now lives at Beckenham. Sir Robert's only ^o LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS brother, Mr. George D. Perks, followed him into the legal profession, and when Sir Robert retired from practice some years ago succeeded to the business which he and Lord Wolver- hampton had built up. So eventful a step as Sir Robert's marriage must not be passed over without a further word. Among his fellow students at Mr. Jefferson's school at Clapham was William Mewbum, son of a well-known and generous Methodist layman, Mr. William Mewbum of Wykham Park, Banbury. It was on a visit to the home of his school friend that Sir Robert first met his wife, Mr. Mewbum's youngest daughter, Edith. The wedding took place on the bridegroom's birthday, in April, 1878. The President of the Wesleyan Con- ference, the late Dr. W. B. Pope, conducted the ceremony, assisted by two Ex-Presidents, both close friends of the bridegroom's family, the Rev. Dr. Jobson and the Rev. Dr. Morley Punshon. Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Lawson Walton, a Wesleyan minister's son, acted as best man, making a speech that is still remembered ; while the bride's health was proposed by Sir Robert's partner, the present Lord Wolverhampton. CHAPTER IV MEN AND MATTERS In the course of his long and active business career Sir Robert has enjoyed the confidence and friendship of many distinguished men, but none stands out more conspicuously in this respect than Sir Edward Watkin, the famous railway potentate, and Mr. Thomas Andrew Walker, an equally talented railway contractor. With both he had for many years the closest relations, and to them he owes more, from a business point of view, than to any two other men. I have spoken of his friendly associations with Lord Penrhyn. These brought him into contact with another well-known Con- servative peer. Lord Cranbrook. In the summer following his wedding it fell to Sir Robert's lot to introduce to the South-Eastern 71 72 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS Railway Board a deputation of the Cranbrook Railway to protest against the action of Sir Edward Watkin's company. His language on the occasion is said to have been more forcible than convincing, but at least it had one good effect — it made a favourable im- pression upon the famous railway magnate. Six months elapsed, however, before Sir Robert's chance came. On the following Christmas Day he was sitting at dinner at Wykham Park, when a telegram was put into his hand. ' Sir Edward Watkin arrives in London to-night from Manchester, and wishes to see Mr. Perks at Cleveland Row on important business.' Sir Robert handed the message to his wife. It was their first Christmas together after their marriage, so who can blame her that she suggested postponement ? Her father sup- ported her. ' Wire saying you will be there to-morrow,' said he. But Sir Robert saw that his opportimity had arrived, and at six o'clock that same evening he was waiting in the railway magnate's library. ' I wondered if you would come,' was the latter's only comment, as he pulled off his heavy fur coat. From that day MEN AND MATTERS 73 forward for fourteen years Sir Robert was by Sir Edward Watkin's side in all his battles. Business simply poured into his lap. For all the railways over which Sir Edward held control, and they were not a few, he was employed, and it is interesting to know that on one occasion only did he seriously differ from his chief on a question of railway policy. This was concerning the costly extension to London of the Great Central Railway, then the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire line. The course advocated by Sir Robert was to extend the Metropolitan Railway northward to meet the Sheffield line, then coming south from Nottingham and Leicester to Rugby. This plan would have given the latter company running powers over the Metropolitan line to Baker Street Station, which, after enlarge- ment, would have served as a terminus for both. Instead of this conservative and manageable scheme, the extension to London was undertaken, at a cost of many millions. It is whispered that personal ambitions and antipathies had more to do with the adoption of this course than considerations of ex- pediency or finance. 74 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS The acquaintance of Mr. T. A. Walker was made in the spring of 1880. Sir Robert was standing one afternoon on Appledore railway platform with Sir Edward Watkin, when the latter, pointing straight across the Romney Marshes to Lydd Church, whose square tower was visible in the distance, exclaimed : ' Perks, we ought to have a railway right across there. The land is perfectly flat, and the cost would not be great. I should like to find some one to build such a line. I would work it for the South-Eastern Company and guarantee the stock.' At once the idea flashed into Sir Robert's mind, Why should not he build the road ? And turning to Sir Edward he said : ' If you will allow me, sir, I will build it.' Sir Edward was considerably startled, but he took his friend at his word and allowed him and his relatives, whose aid was enlisted, to execute the project. Neither party had reason to regret the result. But the question arose. Who should be employed to construct the line ? Sir Edward Watkin advised the appointment of Mr. Walker, who at that time was busy building the Dover and Deal Railway, and the counsel MEN AND MATTERS 75 proved in every way wise. This was Sit Robert's first attempt at practical engineering, and it formed the commencement of an intimate friendship with Mr. Walker which lasted till the latter's death. The well-known contractor was a Christian gentleman in the highest sense, and a scholar of no mean order. Quiet and resourceful, he inspired to an unusual degree confidence in his ability to deal with difficult problems. Sir Edward Watkin professed to be a great admirer of the Methodists, but he had not a very rigid belief in the sanctity of Sunday. ' Shortly after I was made the lawyer of the Metropolitan Railway,' said Sir Robert at a Sunday Observance meeting a few years ago, ' Sir Edward Watkin came down to Blackpool one Saturday afternoon with his wife, and, coming into the lodgings where I was staying, said he wanted me the next day to go through all the papers for a railway Bill, and get the briefs ready for counsel. I told him I never did legal work on Svmday. ' Then what,' said he, ' is the use of such a lawyer ? ' I replied that if he would hand all the papers to me the work should be done by midnight, and on Monday morning I 76 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS would get up early and have all ready. This was done, and I was never asked again by the Chairman to work on Sunday.' The friendship was fruitful in connecting Sir Robert with a number of public works of considerable magnitude, both at home and abroad. The first of these was the Barry Docks and Railways in South Wales, in dealing in the ' paper ' of which he is said to have ' made a little fortune.' The great change wrought in the locality by these undertakings, which have given employ- ment to tens of thousands of people, will appear from the fact that prior to their commencement the site now occupied by the great coal docks and the important town of Barry was mainly green fields ; with the exception of an old farm-house or two, a country residence in the valley, and a quiet church, not a building was to be seen. The docks now ship hundreds of thousands of tons of coal every year, and the town is one of the most prosperous and progressive in South Wales. The Preston Docks and the Manchester Ship Canal were other big concerns with which Sir Robert and his friend were con- MEN AND MATTERS 7; nected. The contract for the latter was let for a sum of £5,600,000. At the time of Mr. Walker's decease, in 1888, some two millions of this amount had been spent. During the following year nearly two million pounds' worth of additional work was done. Mr. Walker's executors subsequently came to an arrangement with the Canal contractor to retire from the work, which they were glad to do, it is said, with a very insignificant profit. Their largest and most successful under- taking, however, was the great Harbour works at Buenos Ayres, for the Argentine Government. These were started in 1887 and completed only five years ago. They involved the turning of the mud banks of the River Plate, for a distance of three miles in front of the city, into a magnificent series of docks, locks, and quays, with numerous gigantic warehouses and railway sidings, and up-to-date equipment ; and the dredging of two deep channels from the dockside out to sea for a distance of seven or eight miles. Mr. Walker's death so soon after the commence- ment of the work threw the responsibihty for its completion upon the shoulders of 78 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS Sir Robert and his present partner, Mr. C. H. Walker, who now constitute the firm of Messrs. Walker and Co. It is gratifying to think that these vast works, costing nearly eight millions sterling, fell to a British firm. They reflect equal credit upon that progressive and prosperous young nation, the Argentines, and upon the courage and enterprise of English contractors ; for the undertaking is perhaps the largest ever essayed abroad by a British firm. Messrs. Walker & Co. are evidently bent upon maintaining their reputation for handling with success gigantic schemes, for they are now constructing a magnificent quay wall, several miles long, round Rio Bay, for the Brazilian Government — a work of great difficulty and magnitude. They are also piercing the Andes between Argentina and Chile, so that soon these two neighbouring Republics will be connected by railway, and passengers will be able to travel through from Buenos Ayres to Valparaiso without change of car. Incidentally it may be stated that Sir Robert and his partner, in connexion with their South American business, own extensive MEN AND MATTERS 79 estancias in Uruguay, with many thousands of cattle and sheep. They are also the owners of large granite quarries in Uruguay and Brazil, with railways, piers, and numerous steamers. In this connexion, too, ibmay be mentioned that in recognition of his many services in the engineering world. Sir Robert was many years ago elected an Associate Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers. This is a distinction which has fallen to few men outside the profession. His proposers were Sir John Hawkshaw, Sir John Fowler, and Sir James Brunlees. Among the other notable personalities with whom his many interests brought him into contact, was the late Comte de Paris, the eldest son of King Louis Philippe. The first business of importance which Sir Edward Watkin entrusted to him, after that memorable summons from the Christmas dinner-table, was an expedition to France, to prepare a confidential report on the Northern of France Railway, and on the possible accommodation at the little seaside town of Treport for a Channel steam service. He was also in- structed to continue negotiations then in 8o LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS progress between Sir Edward and the Orleans Prince for the purchase of the latter's interest in the Treport railway. The acquisition of that interest would have given to the South- Eastern Railway an important length of line running direct to Paris. On several occasions Sir Robert saw the Comte de Paris. On one of them the latter gave him a highly graphic account of the landing at Treport of a large flock of English sheep. Sir Edward's venture unfortunately proved abortive, partly through the enterprise of the Northern of France Railway, but mainly owing to the internal feuds then raging among members of the South-Eastem Board. The Channel Tunnel scheme will long rank as one of the most fascinating projects in the history of British enterprise. Sir Robert was entrusted with the difficult, indeed the almost impossible, task of passing the original Channel Company Bill through Parhament. He fought for the scheme against the Crown, and also took charge of it when it came before a joint committee of the two Houses, on which occasion it was rejected by a majority of one only, viz. five votes to four. The chairman of this committee, who prepared a 5 ^ H < W Pi O to o en W H O M Z O en O 06 < 00 O - ; 1^ m z H P z o s o u fa o w p o u W w w Pi W m O Pi O w o MEN AND MATTERS 8i masterly and voluminous report upon the Tunnel project in its commercial, political, engineering and military aspects, defending and advocating it on all grounds, was none other than the leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Lords and the late Foreign Secretary, Lord Lansdowne. This, of course, was more than thirty years ago, when the project had the support of many leading statesmen. John Bright, for example, was a warm friend. Mr. Gladstone, too, with whom also Sir Robert came into frequent contact, was a convinced and en- thusiastic believer in the commercial and political advantages of direct railway com- munication between England and the Continent. He attached little importance to the alleged military dangers. Indeed, on more than one occasion he declared that a time might come when the existence of such a connexion might be a source of 'military strength to this country. Sir Robert still retains a lengthy manuscript which he prepared for Mr. Gladstone, and which is covered with the notes used by the famous statesman in his de- fence of the project in the House of Commons. Another distinguished personage whom Sir 6 82 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS Robert met at this time was M. Leon Say, who naturally looked at the scheme from the French standpoint, and moreover from that of an economist of the Cobden school. He had the pleasure on one occasion of travelling with the distinguished Frenchman to the head of the Tunnel, more than a mile beneath the Channel, to show him Colonel Beaumont's shield steadily cutting out the grey chalk ; a work which Mr. Chamberlain and the Board of Trade stopped. The one topic of interest with Monsieur Say was the pohtical and social value of the Tunnel. Commercially, he apparently thought it would benefit France but little — rather the reverse. Lord Randolph Churchill occupied a some- what equivocal position in regard to the pro- ject. True, he was a shareiiolder in the com- pany formed by Lord Stalbridge, then Lord Richard Grosvenor, for building the Timnel; but he readily took strong likes and dislikes. ' I hate Watkin,' he once exclaimed to Sir Robert ; and that was at one time the only reason he assigned for opposing the scheme. In one of the debates in the House Sir Edward, in a weak moment, suggested that the Tunnel might be exploded at any time by an electric MEN AND MATTERS gj button, placed upon the Cabinet's table in Downing Street. This was too much for Lord Randolph, who had recently left the Ministry. He passed in cynical review one after another his late colleagues, asking if this one or that would ever dare to ' touch the button.' A more friendly personage was M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, who, in particular, made light of the engineering difficulties. Indeed, no com- petent engineer from first to last really hesitated on this point, the stratum beneath the Channel being one continuous belt of grey chalk, which can be cut through like cheese. One day when they were discussing this aspect of the question Sir Robert unwittingly annoyed his chief. Sir Edward had been saying that Providence had laid that stratum there for the express purpose of giving easy access to France, whereupon Sir Robert, with char- acteristic incisiveness, reminded him that Providence had also placed there a turbulent and treacherous sea. During the progress of the fight M. Lesseps came over to London. He knew what some of the classes thought : he was anxious to ascertain the view of the masses. To gratify him, a number of working men, carefully 84 IJFE-STORY OP SIR R. W. PERKS selected, were invited to meet him at the Charing Cross Hotel. As the distinguished Frenchman was led up the room by Sir Edward, they were astonished to hear the British work- men shout out in continuous and rhythmical strains, ' Vive la France — Vive le timnel sous la Manche — Vive le tunnel — Vive la France ! ' It subsequently transpired that an active official of the company had spent several hours teaching the men thus to express their views. Naturally Monsieur Lesseps went back to France with a passionate belief in the intelligence of the British working man and in his desire to avoid the Channel passage. Here again, it has been stated, personal jealousy and rival interests did more to wreck the scheme than any question of national danger. One of London's greatest financiers once declared that his firm had never made a serious blunder except where they had allowed their commercial instincts to be warped by personal prejudices. It would be interesting to extend this remark to all the public works of the United Kingdom, and to inquire how many important undertakings have been made or marred by the private ambitions of rival magnates. MEN AND MATTERS 85 When a more recent attempt was made to pass a Channel Tunnel Bill Sir Robert assumed a somewhat different attitude. He supported the Government in its discouragement of the project. The necessity for the work, he con- tended, was not so great now as it was thirty years ago, owing to the shortening of the sea passage, the enormous development of cross- Channel traf&c, and the great diversion of trade via Liverpool to Continental ports. Moreover, popular sentiment was strongly against the enterprise, a fact that might involve the country in military expenditure which the commercial advantages could hardly justify. This scheme was to cost sixteen millions. The earher one, engineered by Sir Edward Watkin, involved a cost of only seven millions, and this sum Sir Robert suc- ceeded in getting guaranteed in London and New York, without underwriting, in forty- eight hours. Latterly Sir Robert has had large business interests in Canada, where he is represented by his nephew, Mr. George Volckman, at Ottawa. Another nephew, Mr. J. D. Volck- man, of Chatham, New Brunswick, represents him on the New Brunswick Pulp and Paper 86 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS Mills, at Millerton, on the Miramichi River, which are owned by Sir Robert. He is now taking an active part in a scheme for the construction of a great ship canal in the Dominion, to which scheme Sir Wilfrid Laurier has pledged his Government. It will cost at least twenty million pounds, and will connect the big Canadian lakes with the St. Lawrence by a deep waterway, utilizing for this purpose the French, Mattawa, and Ottawa Rivers. When this canal is cut vessels drawing twenty feet will be able to steam all the way from Liverpool to Chicago, or to Fort WilUam and Port Arthur, and the produce of the North- western regions will reach English or Con- tinental ports without breaking bulk. Should Sir Robert succeed, the canal will rank, as an engineering feat, with the Suez and Panama Canals, while for the boldness of its conception, the vastness of its processes, and the far- reaching nature of its results, it will be one of the wonders of the world. What it may mean to the working classes of this country, in the way of cheaper fruit and bread, is an interest- ing topic into which there is no need to digress. In 1907, in connexion with this big project. MEN AND MATTERS 87 Sir Robert paid two visits to Canada and the States, travelling over the route of the pro- posed canal from end to end. On his first visit he had an interesting interview with President Roosevelt. They discussed together various political questions, the social work of the Methodist Church, the possibilities of religious equality in England, railway matters, and industrial combines. Sir Robert was greatly impressed with the President, whom he described in one of his letters as ' the strong- est personality at the White House since the days of Abraham Lincoln.' A more exciting experience, which occurred on his second visit, was a narrow escape from a forest fire. He had occasion to go from North Bay, a small town on the shores of Lake Nipissing, to Trout Lake, a distance of seven or eight miles ; and he set out, accompanied by a friend, a Canadian-French engineer, in a Canadian buggy drawn by a fine pair of horses. ' We had driven,' he wrote, ' some three or four miles along the country mountain track, when I noticed a cloud ahead. ' " What is that dark cloud ? " said I. ' " Only some homesteaders making a clear- ing," answered my friend. 88 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS ' As we got nearer, the clouds were denser. The air was hot. We heard the bracken crackhng, and here and there saw flames suddenly shoot up. ' " Don't be concerned," said the driver ; " I'll pull you through all right "—for by this time we were enveloped in smoke. ' My friend kept his word, for in half an hour we were through the zone of fire with no more discomfort than sore eyes and somewhat stifled lungs. We little thought what was in store for us on the homeward journey. On we drove some miles, and in a few hours turned homewards. ' Far ahead we could see the dense masses of smoke, blackening the sky for miles. Driv- ing a mile farther we met three or four youths rimning to escape the bush fire, which was quickly spreading. They told us we could not get through. Our French engineer assured us he could get the horses through, if we would only trust him, and away we shot, the horses snorting and palpitating with fear. All around us the forest trees were in flames. The heat was like a blast furnace. Had the wind driven the flames across the road nothing could have saved us. Providentially it was blowing the MEN AND MATTERS 89 other way. I noticed on our right a tall pine ; the fire had burned all round the roots. The tree was swaying, now to the right, now to the left. If it fell to the left it would block our road, or fall on us. In either case we could not have escaped. I watched the great tall burning mass sway gently to the right, lean for a moment against the telegraph wires, and then crash down wires, posts, and all. ' We came to a wood trestle-bridge. The ends of the beams were all on fire. I felt certain that our car when it reached the centre of the bridge would carry the whole structure right down into the stream. The horses, terrified out of their lives, bolted, almost leapt forward — we were across the bridge, and in ten minutes were through the fire, with singed hair and blistered faces to remind us how near we had been to death.' Sir Robert's long experience of London railways and of the many problems connected therewith, gives some weight to his views on London traffic in general. This was recog- nized by the Royal Commission on this com- plicated question, which sat in 1905-6, and before which he was called to give evidence. Among other recommendations made by him 90 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS at the time was the appointment of a Traffic Board, to deliberate on such matters as the improvement of the main roads and the effect on the rates of the depreciation of property caused by the unregulated condition of heavy traffic. In regard to the latter, he pointed out that the vacation of property on the affected thoroughfares, or the appreciable reduction of its value, substantially reduced the mimi- cipal exchequer ; while at the same time the cost of maintaining the roads was, owing to the heavier wear and tear, perceptibly in- creased. A considerable share of the taxation for road repairs ought therefore to fall upon the traffic using the roads. Furthermore, particular classes of vehicles ought to be re- stricted during certain hours to specified thoroughfares. By this means would be abolished that extraordinary civic anachron- ism, the holding up of important traffic in the middle of the day by a snail-paced van. On the question of main roads he also en- larged. The tendency at present is for these to lose themselves directly they reach the suburbs. Sir Robert would have them judi- ciously extended and increased in number, and MEN AND MATTERS 91 finally coupled up by a great boulevard en- circling the whole city. A further problem arising out of the rapid growth of the London suburbs is that of cheap fares. As this is a matter upon which in certain quarters Sir Robert has been greatly misrepresented, it may be well here to define his position. The crux of his alleged offence is that, presumably in the interests of dividend- hunters, he has advocated the raising of work- men's fares. In an interview in one of the morning papers some time ago, he exposed a fallacy upon which, in part, this accusation rests. ' The English railways,' he said, ' do not, as is commonly supposed, belong to a few wealthy capitaHsts. The stock is held by a multitude of small investors, whose average holding does not exceed a thousand pounds ; while very large quantities of stock are also held by insurance companies and friendly societies, who have invested in this way the savings of the working and the middle classes.' It was reasonable, therefore, he continued, that railways should be run at paying rates. He cited the case of the District Railway, which, since its inauguration, had carried more people than the whole population of the world, 92 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS and yet, with the exception of one year, had never paid the Ordinary shareholders a half- penny dividend. It was, in fact, carrying seventeen millions of working men each year at a loss. This was bad for the employes of the company, themselves working men ; and it was bad for the investors, many of whom (friendly societies and the like) represented the most thrifty section of the same class. Any unreasonable reduction of fares, therefore, was in such cases just putting money in the workman's right-hand pocket by taking it out of the left ; or even worse, penalizing the thrifty for the sake of those whose financial habits were unknown. Yet it is not so much the raising of fares that Sir Robert advocates, as their readjust- ment. In New York there is a twopenny- halfpenny rate for everybody ; all are treated alike. The city clerk, who, though he is better dressed, is not always better off, is not made to pay for the working man's ride ; and the shop- boy who goes to work after eight does not have to pay three or four times the fare his workman father pays. It is a scale of fares without these arbitrary and unreal distinctions that Sir Robert desires to see established. MEN AND MATTERS 93 So far, indeed, from being indifferent to the welfare of the working classes, either in this or in any other matter. Sir Robert has in many ways laboured to promote it. In railwaymen, in particular, at home and abroad, he has always interested himself. When he succeeded to the Chairmanship of the Metropolitan District Railway, unlike some other railway directors he invariably adopted a conciliatory attitude towards the men's association. Mr. Richard Bell met the Board on several occasions, and existing difficulties, some of them rather serious ones, were amicably adjusted without friction by a little giving and taking on both sides. Interviewed by The Sheffield Independent on the railway dispute of 1907, Sir Robert said : ' During the last twenty years it has been my lot to be associated with some of the largest public works in the world, and my partners and I had in our employment many thousands of men. I am to-day closely connected with some big enterprises. I have never refused to meet the representatives of the union, and have almost always found that the disputes were capable of solution. I look upon a strike or a lock-out as an economic barbarism, which 94 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS hardly ever does either employer or employed any good. Huge losses are incurred on both sides far exceeding any pecuniary sacrifices which a settlement might entail. When I landed in New York, the wharfingers were on strike. Italians were imported, and the stan- dard rate of pay fell. When I returned to New York the hotel porters were on strike. In Canada, the telegraph operators struck. I do not think any one gained anything. Mr. Bell, as I understand his contention, does not seek to interfere with the management of the lines, and if he is prepared to limit his representations to the conditions of employ- ment, I can see no reason why the directors should refuse to meet him. Unfortimately, most of the directors of English railways are men who have not personally had a com- mercial or business training. They are as a rule opposed to trade-imions. If they knew more of the rough-and-tumble of hfe, they would perhaps not assume such an inexorable position.' On more than one occasion Sir Robert has at his own expense entertained large bodies of workmen. At the Austrian Exhibition a few years ago, for example, he entertained MEN AND MATTERS 95 upwards of three hundred Austrian and Hungarian railwaymen at Earl's Court. He has also shown great generosity to those whose misfortunes or misdeeds have brought them to distress. The following incident was re- lated to me by one intimately acquainted with the case. A young man got into disgrace through drink. Sir Robert heard about it and determined to give him a chance to regain his self-respect. At some personal sacrifice he found him a position, but imposed the condition that he should become an abstainer. The young man kept the pledge for a time and then broke down. Sir Robert, however, gave him another trial. He broke down again, and yet a third chance was given him. Happily, this time Sir Robert's forbearance was rewarded, and to-day the man in question occupies a position of honour and responsi- bility in which his infiuence is wholly for good. CHAPTER V METHODIST LAYMAN Having followed briefly the course of Sir Robert Perks's professional and commercial interests, from their modest beginnings in De Jersey & Micklem's office to their almost world-wide developments, we must now re- trace our steps to indicate another line of activity simultaneously pursued by him with equal ardour and, throughout one notable period at least, with an extraordinary expendi- ture of time and energy. I refer to his services to Methodism. One of the early fruits of his discreet up- bringing, in which, as we have seen, the emphasis was laid upon high example rather than upon moral cramming to achieve its ends, was that at quite a youthful age he took an active part in the life of the Church. Little 96 METHODIST LAYMAN 97 imagination is needed to see what would have been the result upon a nature such as his of a catechetical and introspective training. Like thousands of other self-reliant lads he would have revolted, or at any rate have nursed his resentment until parental restraints were removed, and then turned in repugnance to secular concerns. His father's way was better. By discussing with him almost on terms of equality the affairs of the Church, interest was developed from within, rather than enforced from without. At sixteen, therefore, we find him employing his gifts, with a devotion rare in one so young, in Sunday-school work at Highbury. He acted as secretary and librarian ; and sub- sequently as the teacher of a large class of youths. He was also instrumental in starting a school at Green Lanes, of which he became superintendent. To such work among the young he devoted the greater part of the scanty leisure of six-and-twenty years. At Highbury, too, an idea occurred to him which has since borne good fruit. He noticed that the annual meeting of Methodist preachers' children was not turned to practical account ; so in concert with the late Dr. Robert 7 98 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R, W. PERKS Newton Young, he started the Preachers' Children's Association, based on the principle of a five-shilling donation from every Methodist preacher or preacher's child. It was a family affair, and subscriptions outside the magic circle were neither asked nor taken. This useful fund has been the means of bringing help for close upon thirty-five years to num- berless Methodist ministers' children. The democratic principle upon which it was foimded, namely, ' each person five shillings,' was adopted later, in 1898, when the Twentieth Century Fund was started on the basis of ' one person one guinea.' On his removal after his marriage to Chisle- hurst, where he had built himself a residence, Sir Robert led for fifteen years, to use his own words, ' the regular, quiet, unostentatious life which a hard-working professional man crowded up with business must lead.' ' Methodism, my business, and my home,' he adds, ' absorbed all my attention.' The share claimed by Methodism was by no means inconaderable, compared with what most men similarly placed find themselves able to give. A handsome Gothic church had been built at Chislehurst some ten years previously, METHODIST LAYMAN 99 and here gathered a Uttle group of Methodist la5mien whose names have since become house- hold words in the denomination. Sir Clarence Smith, the late Mr. James Vanner, his brother, Mr. William Vanner, and Sir George Hayter Chubb, were all of the number. In 1881 Sir Robert and Sir George were joint society stewards of the church, and in many other relations they and their colleagues worked earnestly for the good of the community. These, it must be remembered, were among Sir Robert's most militant days, and his pro- nounced views and unequivocal speech made him at once a terror to evildoers and a spur to them that did well. There is indeed a tradi- tion that his zeal led to his being made an ' exhorter.' The tradition also adds that for some reason or other he was eventually ' struck off the plan.' As Sir Robert at one time and another has had a good deal to say about preachers and preaching, this bit of gossip seemed to promise some biographical data of uncommon interest ; but diligent inquiries have elicited nothing, save that in 1884 he was temporarily appointed to conduct services in certain outlying villages then being evangelized, there being a shortage of local preachers quali- 100 LIFE-STORY OF SIR R. W. PERKS fied for such pioneer work ; that his superin- tendent minister, the Rev. Wesley Butters, promised not to worry him about coming on ' full plan ' ; and that in 1892, when the necessity for these special labours ceased, his ' note ' was voluntarily resigned. It is worth mentioning, however, that during this period he interested himself particularly in a Sunday school at the little village of Widmore, and that as the result of his labours its roll was increased from forty to more than three hundred. Sir Robert at this time was of real assistance in the Sunday night prayer- meeting ; and in all good work throughout the circuit he and his devoted wife were ever ready with sympathy and service. By the older Chislehurst residents he is still spoken of with respect and esteem. To complete what may be called the domestic side of his Methodist life, it should be said that when he removed to Kensington, some fifteen years ago, he at once attached himself to the church at Denbigh Road, Bayswater. Here he has held numerous offices and has taken an influential part in the circuit administration. Inevitably his social eminence and Connexional reputation have given him o W CM « m o w o PS < o U